[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 72 (Thursday, April 14, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22067-22068]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-08536]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket No.: ED-2016-ICCD-0008]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Parent Information and School Choice Evaluation

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Department of Education 
(ED).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 
U.S.C. Chapter 3501 et seq.), ED is proposing a new information 
collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
May 16, 2016.

ADDRESSES: To access and review all the documents related to the 
information collection listed in this notice, please use http://www.regulations.gov by searching the Docket ID number ED-2016-ICCD-
0008. Comments submitted in response to this notice should be submitted 
electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov by selecting the Docket ID number or via postal 
mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. Please note that comments 
submitted by fax or email and those submitted after the comment period 
will not be accepted. Written requests for information or comments 
submitted by postal mail or delivery should be addressed to the 
Director of the Information Collection Clearance Division, U.S. 
Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., LBJ, Room 2E-103, 
Washington, DC 20202-4537.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to 
collection activities, please contact Meredith Bachman, 202-245-7494.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Education (ED), in 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A)), provides the general

[[Page 22068]]

public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed, 
revised, and continuing collections of information. This helps the 
Department assess the impact of its information collection requirements 
and minimize the public's reporting burden. It also helps the public 
understand the Department's information collection requirements and 
provide the requested data in the desired format. ED is soliciting 
comments on the proposed information collection request (ICR) that is 
described below. The Department of Education is especially interested 
in public comment addressing the following issues: (1) Is this 
collection necessary to the proper functions of the Department; (2) 
will this information be processed and used in a timely manner; (3) is 
the estimate of burden accurate; (4) how might the Department enhance 
the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; 
and (5) how might the Department minimize the burden of this collection 
on the respondents, including through the use of information 
technology. Please note that written comments received in response to 
this notice will be considered public records.
    Title of Collection: Parent Information and School Choice 
Evaluation.
    OMB Control Number: 1850-NEW.
    Type of Review: A new information collection.
    Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals or Households.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 1,175.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 769.
    Abstract: Sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), 
U.S. Department of Education, the Parent Information and School Choice 
Evaluation (PISCE) is an important first step toward filling the wide 
gap in knowledge about how to present school choice information to 
parents. This research is needed to provide guidance to districts where 
school choice is expanding. PISCE seeks to identify the format, amount, 
and organization of information that is most comprehensible and usable 
to parents. The study will target low-income parents of school-age 
children and will evaluate perceptions of different presentations of 
school information. The results of the study will be used to create a 
reader-friendly guide for school districts.
    IES has contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct the 
needed research. Most of the experiment will be conducted with members 
of a standing panel who already complete surveys on a regular basis for 
a variety of purposes. This approach provides a low-cost and quick 
turnaround method to obtain findings related to the understandability 
of school choice information, which does not require respondents to be 
making actual school choices for their children. To enhance what can be 
learned from the standing panel, the research team also intends to 
recruit a sample of low-income parents of school-age children from 
locations where a public school choice marketplace with unified 
enrollment has been active for at least two years. Parents who have 
experienced public school choice or are at least exposed to open 
enrollment in their district may experience the experiment differently 
than the standing panel members, for whom considering schools other 
than one's default neighborhood school may be unfamiliar. This 
augmented sample of, presumably, less survey-savvy low-income parents 
will be used to provide a sensitivity check of the findings based on 
the standing panel alone.

    Dated: April 8, 2016.
Kate Mullan,
Acting Director, Information Collection Clearance Division, Office of 
the Chief Privacy Officer, Office of Management.
[FR Doc. 2016-08536 Filed 4-13-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4000-01-P